


Presence

by shamebucket



Category: Room No. 9 (Visual Novel)
Genre: Birthday, Friendship, Gen, Middle School, Studying, implied/referenced child abuse if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 21:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8593633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shamebucket/pseuds/shamebucket
Summary: Seiji and Daichi celebrate Daichi's thirteenth birthday. 
(Minor spoilers regarding Daichi's backstory [and maybe Seiji's characterization...?] but otherwise spoiler free.)





	

The final bell rings and Kobayashi jolts awake. I don't need to look behind me to know that's what has happened - his audible gasp and scrape of the chair against the floor is enough. It's practically a cue at this point. The day simply isn't over unless Kobayashi falls asleep the last half hour of the day and wakes up and tries the best he can to pretend that he was always awake. Foolish. Everybody knows he was asleep. 

Not that I blame him. The others love to judge Kobayashi for what they assume is going on with him, but nobody knows the full picture aside from me, I'm fairly certain. And there are spots that I'm sure are blind in my knowledge, too, although I try to learn as much as I can. He's learned enough about me from hanging out with me so much in such a short period of time, so it's fair to reciprocate. It might help me understand him better, as well. I'm not sure if I have ever spent more time with a person who wasn't my older brother, or maybe my mother. 

I close my eyes as I start putting away my books for the day. Yes, Kobayashi has wormed his way into my life. Not that I hate it - actually, I am glad that I have someone that I can consistently spend time with. We always eat at lunch together, my bento slowly becoming more and more communal as he begins to trust that there is no ulterior motive in this repeated gesture. He and I have hung out a few times outside of school, too. He has come over to my house (on non-legal business) exactly once, and we went to the arcade together two or three times. Kobayashi isn't as skilled at playing games as I am, but seeing the light in his eyes when he beat me at a rhythm game made me feel warm. He deserves to be happy. He's a good guy. 

As I think this, I get poked in the back with a pen, and I jump in my seat. "Azumi-kun, hurry up!" 

"I'm packing my bag as quickly as possible so I do not crumple any handouts. You should start doing the same." Kobayashi whines, but he knows that I'm right. There have been a few occasions where he's been sloppy and I had to photocopy my own handout before filling it out so we could both do the homework. Well, it's not really a problem. I'm able to do the homework somewhat quickly, and Kobayashi needs all the help he can get. I would hate to see him fall behind for reasons beyond his control. However, he should learn better habits so he can succeed more easily. 

He sighs, defeated. "You always take so long packing up and then doing your homework!" 

"As should you." I turn around, and he's pouting. "Study with me today." 

Kobayashi looks surprised. "Eh? Me? Study? That's a joke, right?" 

I shake my head. "I'm serious. I'll help you if you get confused." I stand up and sling my bag over my shoulder, meeting his gaze as he also rises. His head is tilted. I haven't seen him look like this many times before. 

"Are you okay, Azumi-kun? You don't invite others to do anything, like, ever. I usually have to bug you first." 

"I'm fine. And it doesn't bug me." I start walking towards the door. "I only want to study with you. It will be some time before I am done with my homework, so you may as well stay with me in the library." He gives me a look that says "got me there" as he shrugs and trails behind me. 

"You know it's useless, though, right," Kobayashi says quietly. "I'm not smart like you." 

I shake my head. I don't want to hear this. Intelligence only gets you so far - he could look at any industry he can possibly think of and see that. Hard work is the main reason why people in his position succeed. I was born into wealth and have had private lessons for some of my youth - of course I'm going to seem "smart". "It's not useless," is all I say, firm, as we enter the library. 

Kobayashi grimaces as he sits down next to me and reopens his textbook, trying to look like he's reading. I know he's having some issues focusing on the words, based on how his eyes are moving. It's the face of a student who wants to try, but cannot find the concentration within him to focus. 

I'm doing my own work, but I try to give him a hint. "Read a paragraph at a time. If it's too much, the first and last sentences of each paragraph are usually enough to get the general feel of the text." 

He sighs. "It'd be easier if you just told me the answers..." 

"No good. You won't learn anything that way." I comb over my history textbook, trying to find the right date to fill in this answer... there. "It's hard work, but it's something you must do." 

Kobayashi frowns. "Nobody's ever said that to me before." 

I'm a little surprised. "Really?" 

"Yeah." He doesn't extrapolate. 

I continue. "Well, you must study anyway. We are going to the same high school." 

He wrinkles his nose. "I'm not going to high school."

I put down my pencil and look at him. "Why not?" 

"I'm not smart enough and I'm not rich enough. Plus, I'm not really good for anything, anyway." He's looking at me like this is the clearest thing in the world. I'm a bit bewildered. "Even if I did get into school, it wouldn't be a nice one like yours. It's a stupid idea." 

"No," I repeat. "We're going to the same school." I pick up my pencil again and check over my history homework quickly and, satisfied, open up my geometry book. 

Daichi doesn't know what to say, but whenever I look up at him to make sure that he's doing his work, his eyes are focused on the page. He chews on the end of his pencil, his leg bouncing up and down. I smile to myself and I hope he doesn't notice.

*~*

Azumi reminds me of my old teacher sometimes.

Maybe it's because he's the only other person who never gave up on me. I remember loving coming to school that year, seeing his warm smile. _Daichi-kun, you're here! I'm glad to see you!_ he'd tell me before starting class. He never told me I was stupid or slow, even when I probably was. And he ruffled my hair whenever I felt sad. I never got that kind of affection from anyone else, so maybe I'm being idealistic. I know adults really aren't that great. My parents, any of my other teachers, government officials, whoever decides to take me in for whatever period of time they feel like they can afford... none of them have done nice things for me, and none of them have expected anything from me in return. 

Azumi's different, but he's not an adult, either. 

I started bugging him just because he sat in front of me in class. The first thing I noticed about him is that he's really good-looking, and, like, fancy. You'd think it'd be hard to tell because we're all wearing the same uniform, but something about him just... oozes class. It's not exactly that he's proper, either - his posture is pretty bad, nothing you'd expect from someone who is super elite. It's something that I can't put my finger on... charisma, maybe? That might be it. I don't really get it yet, but a bunch of girls are already looking at him like he's the coolest thing to ever exist. And I don't know if they're wrong, honestly, even though I'd never feel that way about him. 

The second thing I noticed about him is that nobody really hung out with him for more than a day or two at a time. This confused me deeply. Why? Azumi is pretty clearly the most awesome guy in our class - good looking, smart, and kind when you talk to him. But that's the problem - he doesn't talk much, and only talks when spoken to. I think pretty much everybody is intimidated by him because he seems so perfect. I guess that scares people. Don't know why. Doesn't bother me. 

What bothers me is that he's spending so much time on me, even though I know I'm starting it, when I'm not worth a damn and he knows it. 

But here he is, already done with his homework and trying to help me with mine. "Trying" is the word that we need to use here. I'm stupid and I don't understand any of this. "Azumi-kun, we should give up for the day." 

He shakes his head. "No. I understand that you're behind in your studies, but you will only lag behind further if you don't stay on top of your workload." He points to the geometry problem in front of me. "Do I need to explain how you need to find _y_ on this triangle? Or can you figure it out?" 

"Mmmm..." I groan. I don't want to do this. This is pointless. 

Azumi sighs and, to my surprise, changes the topic of conversation. "What do you want to be when you grow up, Koyabashi-kun?" 

I blink. "Uh... I never thought about it?" 

Azumi laughs. "Me neither." 

"Huh? Really?? I never would have guessed that someone like you doesn't have his entire life planned already!" 

He smiles and sighs through his nose, but I think I might have hit somewhere weak by accident. "I'm a little surprised that you don't know, yourself. I know you're adamant about not going to school, but it seems like there's something that's driving you forward." 

Hmm... "I dunno. I guess I never thought about it that much... I just do what's expected of me, I guess. Though I don't know what I'll do after I flunk or drop out." Maybe die?

"You're not going to do either of those things." 

Azumi's acting weird. He does this thing where he acts like he wants to be around me, even though it's clear that he doesn't really care one way or another if anybody else hangs out with him. I don't get it. I think I'm able to get people to like me okay, because I learned pretty fast that it's better to have people like you than hate you, but Azumi wants me around even when I'm being annoying for some reason. 

I don't think of anything to say in response, so I don't. He takes this as agreement, which I'm not sure it is, but I'll play along for now. What's the worst that can happen? It's easier to pretend that it'll be okay with Azumi around. "Alright. You need to figure out the length using Pythagoras's Theorem. You remember that, right?" 

"Yessss. The teacher only drilled it into our heads about a billion times. I got that even when I was sleeping." 

"That's not funny. You should be studying harder." 

Guess I can't win. "Yes, sir," I sigh, and look a little harder at the problem. Now that he's reminded me of that, it doesn't seem so hard. I pull out my calculator and punch a few numbers, and I think... I got the right answer? I show it to Azumi. "This right?" 

He smiles. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in my life, except for maybe that night at the convenience store, and that was also Seiji. I feel - like I matter. "Yes, it's right. You did a good job..." he lingers, "Daichi." 

I don't know how to respond. "Um, it's not much, really, I mean it's more than I normally can do, but it's what I should be doing anyway, right?" 

Azumi smiles a little more softly, so I'm not as overwhelmed by the brightness of it. "But it's more than you usually do. You did a good job. You can keep doing this, I know you can." 

"Jeez, you don't have to lay it on so thick." But... I'm happy, and I think he knows that I'm happy too. I'm not very good at faking how I feel. 

He laughs. "Sure. And... I think that's it, right?" 

"Yep." Thank goodness. I don't know how much more of that I could take. "Should we go home?" 

"Yeah. There is something I need to give you first, however." Azumi reaches into his bag and pulls out a small, neatly folded white box. "It's cake," he says, even though it's obvious. "There's something else..." he says, reaching into his bag. "Sorry, I wasn't sure what to get you until last night, so I didn't have a chance to wrap it for you." 

I'm confused, but then I remember. Oh yeah. I told him what day my birthday was when we celebrated his at the arcade a little over a month ago, because he was curious. I feel bad having him spend money on me like this when he already gives me a big portion of his lunch. "Hey, you don't need to do that, I'm fine!" 

"I wanted to," Azumi insists, and I press my lips together in a tight line. "It's your birthday. It's not much, but I wanted to do something." 

"Well, okay, if it makes you feel better... but you have to eat some of this, too." 

Seiji tilts his head. "Alright, but not in the library. Here." He hands me something. "For you." 

It's a box... looks like jewelry. I scrunch my nose as I open it. There's a simple band inside. It looks really plain. I don't get it. "I'm not a girl." 

His eyes shift to the side. "I know. I've noticed that you fidget a lot, however. I thought maybe you could use something to play with in your hands. You could put it on a necklace or something similar if it bothers you to wear it on any of your fingers." He closes his eyes. "At the very least, it would be less disruptive and less likely to get you in trouble than clicking your pen nonstop." 

Hmm... I see. I don't know if I get it, but when he puts it like that, it's pretty considerate. I take the ring out of the box and play with it in my palm. It's pleasantly smooth to the touch and not very wide, although it is decently thick. I don't know if I could wear this on my hands, not only because I think it might be a bit too big for me, but having something to play with in my pocket or around my neck as a necklace seems like a surprisingly good idea that I hadn't ever thought of. "Thanks, Azumi-kun."

"Seiji," he corrects me. 

I feel small. "Thank you, Seiji," I repeat. 

He smiles. "You're welcome, Daichi." Seiji is small himself sometimes, when he's kind like this, his eyes crinkled behind his glasses. I feel kind of special that he considers me his friend. And I hope he's okay with the fact that I consider him mine. 

We eat the slice of cake in the corner of a hallway, quickly so we don't get caught. Seiji makes sure to not spill any crumbs on his jacket or on the floor, and lets me have most of it, taking only a few careful bites whenever I offer my fork. Still, I'm glad that we were able to share it together. 

I don't think I've ever had anything more delicious in my life.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, you horrible little man. You ruined my life. I hope you're happy and getting kisses from the man you love 10 years into the future.


End file.
